Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1887-04-16
ENGLISH rINNy-A-tlNgRss
How They Exc Out Miserable Exiaf-
once In London.

once In London.
Although this Is the best season OF the
year for tho penny-a-llner, | met ono of
the craft tho other day, whom l had
known under happier circumstances, ON
the verge of starvation, and from what he
told me of the profession | take it that
'penny-a-lining' il not really SO profit
able business-in London, anyhow--as
poesy.
Pcnny-a-lining Is one OF those profess
sion, tho cmbarkation upon which does
not involve the expenditure Of any very
large amount of capital--all that is needed
for start being o certain number of
'1lmsiesn and "blacks," with vulcanite
'plate" and an agate "stylo" Armed
with these, nn ability TO write more or less
legibly, and smattering OF the queens
English VERY little of tho latter being re
quired), the embryo liner may set forth
In quest Of worlds had almost said
words--to conquer. Io must not be dis
appointed ut discovering many in the field
before him, nor at his earlier attempts
finding their way into tho sub-editors' W,
D. b., which annually receives 30 many
miles of what the author regarded as
most interesting ''copy" London is lit
orally overrun with these free lances Of
the press, who arc, to large extent, re-
sponsible for the gray hairs and prcma-
ture decay of assistant editors. All Is fish
which comes to the liners net, and there
are few public events which--to vary the
metaphor-do not bring grist to his mill
Fatal accidents, sensational suicides, hor-
rible murders, speeches by prominent
mo or Ioo kA {,,.ro inI ao1Ig
them) conflagrations-all are material for
the style and tho film"
Great Is the liner where inquests are
concerned. In most cases he follows one
particular coroner and listens to case after
case for week after week, in tho full and
certain conviction that sooner or later he
will get the temporary monopoly of some
thing very startling. or horrible. London
Is too big a city for the regular staff of
any paper to properly cover, and all the
journals of the metropolis arc more or
less dependent upon the penny a-liner,
who occasionally shamefully imposes upon
tho sub-editor when news is scarce and
money scarcer
Liners may bo divided into two classes.
First, those who are regularly engaged upon
the staff of q small suburban paper, and who
exc out the miserable stipcnds which local
London proprietors regard as sufficient by
thinning anything of sufficient import
ance for the big dailies which they may
happen to come across in their own dis
trict These may be regarded as the more
respectable half Of the profession. The
somewhat shadier portion is composed OF
out-at-clbows gentlemen, broken down
hacks, men dismissed for drunkenness
from the higher walks of journalism, etc.
men to whom the non-insertion of q
''par" means absolute starvation, and il
Is small wonder that sub-editors are now
and thon "had." A party Of four or five
liners gather together in n bar parlor, and
report their own vaporings over theiI
pipes and whisky as san important politi
cal gatherings" and quite recently the
dead body of man was several times
found hanging in one Of our parks, which
corpse was never discovered by the park
rangers or police. Sunday papers go In
largely for inquests, and it would not dc
for too close on inquiry to be made into
some of the particulars reported as having
taken place yesterday" while the man
ner in which liners try to run" one az,
other after something of the kind is not &
little diverting. The rule of most papers
is, first come, first served; but some subs
have their favorites, who are the envy o.
| their less fortunate brethren. Cor. Phila
| delphia Telegraph